Taking on an artistic project alone can feel overwhelming before you’ve even started.

You have an idea you care about. Then you begin to see everything it will require. If you’re making a record, writing the songs is only part of it. There is recording, production, mixing, mastering, artwork and eventually figuring out how to release it.

, I sometimes felt the distance between what I wanted to create and what I knew how to do. I was responsible for bringing the project together, including the parts I had very little confidence in.

When you work on your own, there isn’t always someone who can tell you what comes next. You have to decide where to put your time, what needs attention and when to move forward. Alongside the creative work, you become the person keeping the project going.

That responsibility can make you feel as though you should be capable of everything already.

You can take a project seriously while still having things to learn. You can care deeply about the result without demanding perfection from yourself every day. Your ability will develop as the work progresses.

I think that is something worth seeing more often: how a person actually gets through a project with the knowledge, resources and energy they have. There are ordinary days of trying to move one part forward. Sometimes that is enough.

Working independently also means deciding where you need support. You can ask questions, invite a contribution or trust someone with part of the work. The project can remain yours while making room for help.

Finishing an album has made me want to share more of that experience. I’ll probably make videos through TASTIMU on YouTube about recording, production, mixing and mastering. I’d like to explain things I’ve learned while showing the practical reality of doing this yourself.

I hope they can be instructive and encouraging. Someone watching might have a project they keep postponing because they feel unprepared. I would like them to see a way to begin.

 has given me confidence that comes from having carried something through. I still have plenty to learn, and I can take that with me into the next project.

If you feel called to make something, give yourself room to grow into the person who can finish it. You can begin before you know how to do every part.

You don’t have to know everything to make something

Gerard Conesa is a good friend, and this was the first time I had entrusted the cover artwork to someone else. We had a fairly clear idea of what we were looking for: the image of Lulu Cinnamon. Getting there took time.

For a while, everything developed very slowly. We tried so many things and went through so many sketches. We would follow one direction, then go back. Both of us brought proposals, and we were usually quite aligned, even as the image kept changing.

Then, after all that slow work, we suddenly sprinted.

Some moments were difficult. I would keep him company while he drew, and those sessions also became time to reflect and talk. They felt therapeutic to me. I think we both learned a lot, and we got to know each other better through the process.

When we finally reached the cover, it felt like we had done it. After all the attempts, we had found the image.

I think finishing it gave both of us more energy to create. That is part of what I remember when I look at the artwork: the time we spent together, the drawing, the conversations, and the feeling of finally getting there.

Drawing the cover of Lulu Cinnamon with Gerard Conesa

 was mixing and mastering the whole record. It was painful at times.

I am completely self-taught in music production. Finishing everything with the resources and space I have was a real challenge. It took around two months to get through that final stage.

By then, the songs had already lived through many versions. 

 went through around ten before I found the one that felt right. The same happened with 

The songs themselves aren’t especially complex, but production can be such a huge thing. Translating something I have composed with just a guitar and my voice into a fuller production can be a serious challenge. Other times, it comes easily, as if it had fallen from the sky.

Unexpected decisions appeared throughout the process. Things came out of nowhere. There were mistakes that felt like miracles.

At the same time, life was still happening. I had things of my own to heal. Making this album became part of that healing process, and all of it was happening alongside the practical work of getting the music finished.

Eventually, I reached a point where I could say: this is good enough to put out into the world.

Could it have been better? I don’t know. Probably, haha. But the way it sounds also belongs to this dream, to Lulu Cinnamon.

That was the point at which I could let it go.

When Lulu Cinnamon was ready to leave my hands

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You don’t have to know everything to make something

Drawing the cover of Lulu Cinnamon with Gerard Conesa